


The New World Order

by brionylarkin



Series: Drove (Them) Underground [4]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Fanfiction of Fanfiction, Gen, Side Effects of Time Travel, Time Travel, changing timelines, essentially, this is my other take on how can't go won't go could have ended
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2019-10-26
Packaged: 2021-01-03 12:30:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21179465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brionylarkin/pseuds/brionylarkin
Summary: Changing the timeline so drastically has some... unintended consequences. Go figure.ORAn alternate ending to Can't Go, Won't Go





	The New World Order

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Can't Go, Won't Go](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18342056) by [brionylarkin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/brionylarkin/pseuds/brionylarkin). 

> If you haven't read Can't Go, Won't Go... go read that first or this will make zero sense. If you haven't read it in a while, I'd recommend rereading the last chapter. This follows the events of the last chapter for a hot second before it diverges.

“Shit,” Luther couldn’t help but say, staring at his father’s dead body in horror. Allison leaned in behind him, hand over her mouth in shock. 

Diego couldn’t seem to muster up anything but a bitter sort of happiness as he lowered his knife. The old bastard had gotten exactly what he deserved, in his opinion. Of course, he knew better than to say that in front of Luther.

“Well,” Allison swallowed hard. “What do we do?”

“I’ll get Pogo,” Diego said. He stepped back out of the cell and closed the door. 

Allison nodded and lead the way into the elevator. Luther followed without comment, pensively staring at the floor. Diego brought up the rear, not wanting to pry into his brother’s thought process.

The elevator ride was completely silent, no one willing to speak on what they’d just seen. Once they reached the first floor, Diego breezed through the living room, stopping only momentarily to squeeze Vanya’s shoulder where she sat on the couch. He could tell she was still unsure how to feel about the day’s events. She gave him a strained smile and soon Diego was out of the room. 

In the hallway, Klaus was on the phone. 

“Pick up, pick up,” he mumbled, tapping his foot and twisting the phone cord around his fingers. Diego heard a click on the other end, followed by a faint greeting.

“Finally!” Klaus cried. “It’s Klaus. Listen, some crazy stuff has happened--”

He paused, face screwed up in confusion, as the person on the other end spoke.

“Wait, who am I talking to?” he interrupted them. “Wait, don’t--” The line went dead and Klaus hurled it away in disgust, leaving it to dangle off the wall by its cord. 

“What was that about?” asked Diego suspiciously from behind him. 

Klaus jumped and turned around. “Shit, bro,” he laughed, holding his chest. "You scared me." His eyes were clearer than they’d been in months. 

Diego softened his tone, remembering their conversation from the other day. “Who were you calling?” 

“Ah.” Klaus ran his hand through his already unruly hair. “I was trying to call the older us, but some random lady picked up.”

“You probably had the wrong number,” said Diego dryly. 

“See, normally I would think that,” said Klaus, picking up the phone and placing it in the receiver. “But I called the same number yesterday and older me answered. I know it’s theirs, but that lady acted like it had been her phone number forever.”

Diego shrugged. “So, they got a new number and she’s crazy. We have bigger problems. We’ll stop by in a couple of days.”

Klaus nodded, eyes darting to the side. “Okay.”

Diego narrowed his eyes, suddenly unsure. He examined Klaus’s fidgeting and nervous expression.

“Alright, tell me,” he said, crossing his arms. Before Klaus could respond, a distraught Pogo was entering the hall. He stopped when he saw them.

“I assume one of you was on your way to inform me of what has happened?” he said, then shook his head. “No matter. Arrangements will have to be made.” Diego opened his mouth, but Pogo was interrupting him before he’d even started. 

“Don’t worry, Master Diego, your sister will come to no harm,” he said. “It was well within her right to defend herself. In this case, I must admit your father was in the wrong.” Pogo sighed.

“Damn right he was!” exclaimed Klaus, snapping out of whatever funk he’d been in. “He tried to kill Vanya, _ our sister, Vanya _!” 

Pogo just gave him a sad glance and headed towards the living room where the rest of Diego’s siblings were gathered. 

Klaus scoffed and threw his arms up. Diego just crossed his arms, sending his brother a significant look. 

Klaus sighed explosively. “I just have a bad feeling, okay! Something’s changed about older us and I don’t know what it is and it’s bothering me!”

Diego nearly took a step back, surprised at Klaus’ ferocity. His eyebrows furrowed instead. “What do you mean?”

“There’s just something wrong,” Klaus replied, looking away. “I can’t explain what.” When Diego still looked unsure, Klaus continued. “I felt the same way when you guys went on that mission where you met the older us. I was trying to ignore it, but it’s why I met you on the stairs when you got back.”

“Are you saying you have a new power or something?” Diego said. “It’s a good thing Dad never found out. He’d have made you come on missions just to tell us what was going to happen.”

“It’s not a new power,” Klaus rolled his eyes. “Seeing ghosts comes with a lot of sides you guys don’t see. I’m the human ouija board.” He attempted a weak smile. “I need to check on them.”

“Okay,” Diego said, attempting to soothe Klaus before he marched out the door. “Let’s deal with the Reginald situation first, then we’ll go together.”

“Oh.” Klaus stopped in his tracks. “I totally forgot. Dad’s dead, isn’t he?” When Diego nodded, a small smile came over Klaus’s face.

“You wouldn’t know, but I totally called it,” he said.

~~~~~~~~~~

Later on, when the body was taken care of and the crime scene covered up and the press alerted that a _ terrible tragedy _ had happened, Klaus and Diego set out to see their older selves.

It was over the course of this walk that Diego realized how hard Klaus was working to avoid his addictions. He watched his brother shoot quick glances into seemingly random alleyways and flinch when any slight noise emerged from them. Klaus’s hands were never still, but there’d been more frantic energy about them since Klaus dropped the drugs. 

He was also noticeably jumping at nothing. Or what looked like nothing to Diego. Since their conversation about what Klaus could see, Diego had been unable to get it out of his head. To have living corpses following you around all the time must be… horrifying. Diego couldn’t imagine what he would do if it was him.

He tried to subtly hurry them along, remembering the instant relief Klaus had gotten when they approached his older self the last time. 

No such moment came. They reached the point where it had worked previously, but nothing changed. Klaus didn’t even look surprised, just started walking a bit faster. 

It was only when they reached the apartment that Diego admitted to himself that something was seriously wrong. 

“Can I help you?” asked the woman who opened the door. She was fairly young with blonde hair and a stressed air about her. A baby was crying in the background, with another person’s soothing voice floating behind it.

“Um,” said Klaus, bewildered. “We--uh… we must have the wrong apartment.” 

The woman shrugged and let the door close, muffling the baby’s continued cries. The boys were silent, until Diego broke.

“Maybe they moved?” he offered, hands coming up in a shrugging motion. 

“In one day,” Klaus said in a monotone voice. “Without telling us.”

“Where else would they be?” Diego said, starting to pull Klaus down the hall. “I’m sure there’s an explanation.”

Klaus let himself be pulled down the stairs and out of the building, where he offered a possible clue. 

“I know where older me works,” he said. “We could check there.” Diego nodded and they were off.

At the coffee shop where older Klaus had been working for three years, no one recognized his name. Diego flashed every smile he had and even tried a glare, but no one knew any Klaus. Even a manager the young Klaus had heard mentioned by name was baffled by the question. 

“It’s like they never existed,” said Diego as they sat on the curb outside. He stared down at his hands. “But they did… right?” He turned to Klaus, whose eyes were wet. “Klaus?”

Klaus sniffed. “I don’t think they do.” He grabbed Diego’s arm and continued in a low voice. “You saw them, though. We _ all _ saw them. They’re _ real _.”

“Y-Yeah,” Diego said. “As real as you are.” 

Klaus groaned. “Yeah, see, that’s less of a comfort than you’d think.” He ignored Diego’s bewildered ‘what?’ as he got to his feet and scrubbed at his eyes. “Let’s get back.”

~~~~~~~~~

“I just don’t understand,” said Luther, arms crossed where he was standing in front of his siblings. “People don’t just disappear.” He looked towards Allison for backup, but she had been quiet since Vanya refused to come downstairs for the family meeting. 

“Join the party,” mumbled Diego. Beside him, Klaus was gazing longingly at the bar in the back of the room. Diego absentmindedly reached over and flicked his forehead. 

“Ow!” Klaus rubbed his forehead and glared at Diego. “Bully.” 

Five was pacing behind them, muttering to himself and occasionally stopping to scribble something in a notebook. His siblings had learned the hard way to ignore him until he was ready to share whatever he was obsessing over.

“Didn’t the older Klaus know a ghost?” said Luther, turning to Klaus. “Could you try to summon him?”

Klaus winced. “Maybe? I don’t even know his full name.”

“What about me?” said Ben, turning to Klaus. “Could you summon me?” Luther, Allison, and Diego turned to him, confused, but Klaus just seemed horrified. 

“You know about that?” he gasped, mouth gaping open. “Fuck, Ben, I didn’t realize.”

“I asked older you about it the first night,” Ben said, rubbing his arm. “It’s not like it’s gonna happen here.”

Klaus squeezed his eyes shut. “I can try. I definitely know you better than I do Dave.”

“Wait, what are you saying..?” Diego said with dawning realization. “Ben’s not…”

“Did Ben _ die _ in the future?” Allison cried shrilly. “And you knew and you didn’t tell us?” 

“Well, we have to figure out how to avoid it,” Luther said, eyes wide. “Did the older Klaus tell you how and when it happens? Ben, you’re gonna be fine.”

Ben laughed a bit despite himself. “It’s already fixed.”

“What?” said Allison. She reached over to rest a hand on Ben’s shoulder. “What happened?”

“I was supposed to… um… die during that mission where we met them,” he responded, leaning into Allison’s hand. “They already fixed it.” He took a deep breath and turned back to Klaus. “So, could you try?”

“I’ve got it!” Five shouted behind them, causing just about everyone to jump. Five came around the couch and slammed his notebook down on the table. “It’s the timeline resetting itself.”

“What?” Allison asked, face screwed up in confusion. 

Five rolled his eyes. “Something happened that made the timeline they came here from completely impossible to recreate, so that version of us was erased from existence.”

“Shit,” muttered Diego.

“So, they’re just gone?” said Luther. “How is that possible?”

“I just said it’s the timeline resetting itself,” emphasized Five. He sat down on the edge of the table and began to flip pages in his notebook. “It looks like it was Reginald’s death that triggered the reset.”

“So, it’s my fault,” came Vanya’s thin voice from the doorway.

“Vanya!” Allison sat up straight, but Vanya just ignored her.

“Instead of killing one person, I killed seven,” she said, face pale.

“Vanya, you couldn’t have known,” Ben said softly. “You were only defending yourself.”

“There is one bright side,” said Five, closing his notebook and looking at Vanya. “If the timeline that our older selves came from doesn’t exist, then the apocalypse isn’t going to happen either.”

~~~~~~~~~

The ghost came to Klaus while he was in the bath. This was a common enough occurrence, but this particular ghost was notable for one reason--it was Dave. Klaus’s Dave. He looked exactly as he had the last time Klaus saw him, open chest wound and all, just a little more confused. 

“I don’t--what--where am I?” he stuttered, looking around in bewilderment. “Who are you?”

Klaus, who had hurried to gather bubbles to preserve his modesty, said. “How’d you get here?” He looked Dave up and down, confused. “I didn’t summon you.” 

“Summon me?” Dave furrowed his brow. “What’re you talking about? Where am I?”

Klaus sighed. “Long story short. You’re a ghost and I’m the only one who can see you. Right now, I don’t have any control of this, but that’s hopefully going to change soon. Fingers crossed!” 

Dave just seemed more confused. Klaus cracked his knuckles and sat up. It was as good a time as any to practice banishing spirits.


End file.
